Cape Town – The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says it expects President Cyril Ramaphosa to “address the contentious issue of South African companies that are playing poor foreign workers against poor South African workers” during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday.
According to The Citizen, Cosatu’s anticipation of the matter comes amid frantic efforts by a number of political parties, including ActionSA, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), and the African Transformation Movement (ATM), to fight for locals to be given preferential treatment in jobs.
It also comes against the backdrop of high unemployment.
Cosatu’s parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said that the country already has laws in place to monitor foreign worker employment.
“So it speaks to that a company must at least employ 60% of its staff from South African workers. If you hire migrant workers, then that skill must not be available locally and should provide proof that they have advertised the job and everyone who qualified applied,” EWN quoted Parks as saying.
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However, he hopes that Ramaphosa will announce his intentions of perhaps tabling any formal policy on the employment of foreigners in certain sectors during SONA.
In a statement, Cosatu said it wants Ramaphosa to acknowledge that the deepening socioeconomic crises in South Africa are the result of the misguided macroeconomic policy framework that has been implemented over the years.
“Workers expect the president to announce plans for his government to move away from economic policies that are suffocating the economy and that have left half the adult working population unemployed.
“We expect to hear about progress since the last SONA, in 2021, on government’s interventions to rebuild the state, tackle corruption, grow the economy, create jobs, and roll out the vaccines,” said Cosatu.
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
